Suffusing
by Kian
Summary: A pre-Chuunin exam fic. Kakashi looks over his first and only students while they sleep off a day on the road. Slash if you're wearing the appropriate goggles.


**Title:** Suffusing  
**Author:** Kian  
**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Type:** gen/shounen-ai  
**Pairing/Characters:** Kakashi POV, Sakura, mild SasuNaru hints  
**Rating:** PG  
**Summary:** A pre-chuunin exam fic. Kakashi looks over his first (and only) students while they sleep off a day on the road.  
**Disclaimer:** The anime series Naruto and its characters are copyright to the appropriate creators and companies. The individual under the pen name of "Kian" is receiving no profit from the distribution of this story, nor does said author have any intention to receive compensation beyond hopefully some verbal praise.  
**Notes:** Took about an hour and ten minutes, so five minutes under the wire. Not perhaps the most cohesive thing I've ever written, but I've never been accused of making a whole lot of sense before. Written for the "Subtle Love" challenge on the LJ community tempsmort. This is not all necessarily just romantic love, but I also tried to find the love Kakashi has for his students.

** Suffusing**

The flames from the campfire had long since retreated to glow silently in the crumbling confines of logs and ashes and the forest was submerged in the sable lull of night. Here in their snug little dell, four figures nestled into the stillness and tranquility of the illusory shelter the surrounding trees provided.  
  
The girl had squirmed close to the campfire in her sleep, nulling her attempts to appear as sturdy as her team mates. Of course, he chuckled silently, the other two hadn't been able to resist the siren call of warmth once their eyes had closed either. So the three children were squirming in their bedrolls ever closer to the dying fire and, subsequently, to each other. That's all they really were in the end, three children seeking warmth in one another.  
  
He knew that his team would not last much longer as a single unit.  
  
Everyday he saw them each grow more aware of the girl's inability to keep up with her team mates. It was not that she was not gifted, on the contrary, she showed much potential for growth and success as a ninja of the village. But her skills were to put her in a path for respectable normalcy. She would join the ranks of the dependable and vibrant young soldiers who were liberally sprinkled through the ranks of the Leaf's elite forces. Her team mates were headed down a much different path. They, all three, were aware of this rift, but none of them wanted to speak of it.  
  
He had wondered at first why it was the Third had placed such a conventional talent in the midst of the chaos that surround the two orphans. But time had quickly revealed the sense in the choice; namely that she provided a steady source of normalcy that grounded and protected the two boys from the world and from each other. She was the proof of their humanity because she cherished them and was not ashamed to call them team mates and friends. Of course, in some regards she was a little too normal in so far as a pretty face and brooding eyes caused her to make silly choices, but even this trait was swiftly fading in the background of her sisterly concern for the two boys.  
  
It had taken much longer for him to realize why the Third had approved of matching the two volatile boys with each other. They were not equal and opposite entities, they were not kindred spirits; they were destined from the start to grate on and infuriate each other. One wanted revenge and power, the other wanted recognition and responsibility. One was proud and irrational, the other confident and quixotic. One was kind not in words, but in rare deeds, while the other was constantly well-intentioned but clumsy in everything except his capacity to tell the truth. One was exceptionally disciplined and consistently demonstrated his prowess on the battle field, the other was fervid, but frequently held back by his own strength. They were not opposites, they were not consonant psyches. They were complimentary to each other only through constant friction.  
  
And it was only a matter of time before they would need to be separated, concentrated on individually. He had no idea which he should give up and, as of yet, no other free teacher had shown the capacity to take on either of his students long term. The girl could be given to almost any respectable teacher, but his boys were delicate powers and needed the upmost in attention and intruction.  
  
And they could not long be from one another. If the avenger was removed from the fox child, he would lose his understanding of what it was to be a protector and a member of something. He would lose all sight of his village and his clan and see only the blood red of vengeance and power. If the kit was removed from the avenger, he would lose his focus on growth and training, and would ultimately be shuffled off into a miserable existence away from the village he so loved, forever on a mission until someone finally killed him on some poor side road or in some dank alley. He would be damned if his only students ended up being tools for the village or themselves, without an ally or protector. The Third had given them each other so that they could defend and contain each other. The girl, and eventually the other genin his comrades were training, were to be their advocates in the village, but they were to be each other's advocate on the battle field, the testament to each other's strength and goals.  
  
He looked up from the softly smoking logs when the kit fitfully rolled closer to the warmth his body subconciously sensed.  
  
Naruto had finally come to huddle against the still form of his rival, gradually uncurling from the ball he had slept in to maintain warmth. Sasuke slept on, unperturbed and seemingly content with the body pressed lightly to his side, the hand that had been curled in his shurikan holster loosening and falling naturally to his side.  
  
Kakashi smiled gently. He supposed the Third had not imagined how very well his plan would work. No, perhaps not. His lone watchful eye returned to a peaceful study of the dying embers as the night blanketed them once again in blissful quietude. 

Fin.


End file.
